Friday, July 08, 2005

Temple Grandin

I am supposed to be reading Sons of Fortune by Jeffrey Archer which is our next book circle book. I did start it and got about 2 chapters in but was not captivated enough to keep at it when I had Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation sitting beside it on the bedside table just asking me to crack the cover. What an interesting book. I saw Temple being interviewed on the TV not long ago which is what reminded me about the book and I had to buy it for my daughter who is trying to get work her way into a career in the animal behavior field.

I also have a niece who has aspergers syndrome and I found the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime fascinating so I knew I would get a lot out of this book also. I am about half way through and I am learning so much about animals and how they think and about people and how they think because Temple compares how autistic people (and animals) see the world and how "normal" people see the world. Temple has learned something about how she differs in her thinking from most people and can bridge the divide between the two worlds to some degree.

You know I really think there is a whole continuum of thinking modes and only when you get to one end of the spectrum do you get the aspergers and autism diagnoses. If I was to put myself on that continuum I would say that I might be closer to that end than most other people as there are some things about her thinking that I share ( and since it runs in my family...)... an insistence on facts or truth, perfectionism, some attention to detail...on the other hand I am highly verbal and I don't think in pictures so...I don't know. Anyway, there is no way I am going to get back to Sons of Fortune until I finish Temple's book, so there.

2 comments:

jodi said...

The audio version of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is even better than the book version. The man who does the reading is fantastic with the mood that he sets. You can really believe that he is that child.

canary said...

Just got back from a trip. Thanks for your comment. I will watch for the audio version. Sounds great.

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Romania.
Dorothy Parker, Not So Deep as a Well (1937)